Thanksgiving Day in the United States is a great day of warm family reunion,
celebration and of course counting our blessings. It is a holiday, which has a much
longer history than most Americans realize.
Every time a family or group gather over a meal and praise God for their gifts of life,
family, and food it is a “thanksgiving.” People have been doing thanksgiving for time
immemorial. However, here the focus will be on Thanksgiving feasts on a great
scale and historic significance that we have proclaimed a national holiday.
The first recorded act of giving thanks by colonizing Europeans in what has come to
be these United States of American took place in 1565 (over a half century before the
English Mayflower Pilgrims) when the Spanish founder of St. Augustine, Pedro
Menindez de Avilis, and 800 Spanish settlers shared in a Mass of Thanksgiving.
Following the religious service, Menindez ordered a communal meal to be shared by
the Spaniards and the Seloy natives who occupied the landing site.
The first Thanksgiving in what is now the American West occurred on April 30th 1598
as the Oñate muster arrived on the banks of El Rio Bravo, the Rio Grande before
Captain John Smith sailed from England and founded Jamestown in Virginia in
1607, and almost a quarter century before the famous Pilgrims anchored the
Mayflower at Plymouth Rock on November 21, 1620 and celebrated what is often
erroneously taught in many schools as the first Thanksgiving in 1621. It is estimated
that Don Juan de Oñate, one of the four richest men in New Spain spent in excess of
a million dollars from the silver mines owned by his father Cristobal Onate and
himself to fund a colonial expedition to New Mexico.
On January 26, 1598 Onate left Zacatecas, New Spain (later Mexico) to establish the
first significant infusion of colonists in the New Mexico Kingdom. The Oñate muster
formed a four-mile long procession with over 80 wagons and ox carts, with between
seven and thirteen thousand head of European livestock, and 560 people. The
expedition consisted of, soldiers, Indians, servants, and families, the majority of
whom were from the Iberian Peninsula including Spain, Portugal, and the Canary
Islands. For their mettle as colonizers of the kingdom of Nuevo Mexico they were
promised the title of Hidalgo, men with status of Spanish nobility. It was a long
arduous travail. They crossed the Rio Grande River on April 30, 1598 into the
Kingdom of New Mexico a few miles from the place called “El Paso del Norte” now
known as El Paso, Texas.
There was no “Texas” in existence at that time. To mark the event Oñate’s journal
indicates that he ordered the priests to lead the colonists in a Catholic mass of
thanksgiving followed by a large feast. They feasted on wild native fowl, and what is
known today as Mexican food. The event also appears in the journal of the famous
Spanish poet Gaspar Perez de Villagra, who traveled with Oñate. Villagra wrote, “We
built a great bonfire and roasted meat and fish, and then sat down to a repast the like
of which we had never had never enjoyed before.”
Before this bountiful meal, Don Juan de Onate personally nailed a cross to a living
tree and prayed, “Open the door to these heathens, establish the church altars
where the body and blood of the Son of God may be offered, open to us the way to
security and peace for their preservation and ours, and give to our king and to me in
his royal name, peaceful possession of these kingdoms and provinces for His
blessed glory. Amen.” It has since been known as the first Thanksgiving Day
celebration in the Wild West of the United States.
Over two hundred-fifty years later, at the behest of Sarah Josepha Hale, who spent
forty years writing to congressmen, lobbying five presidents, and writing countless
editorials in her campaign to create an official day of thanks, President Lincoln
became the first president to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. Many of the
colonists’ descendants continue to live right here in New Mexico after more than
fifteen generations.
There are few places in the country where European descendants in such great
numbers continue to live and survive three national banners and almost a score of
generations in the same geographic locale. Some of those first colonists, their
descendents along with families who arrived thereafter appear first in Spanish
Archives include the following to name a few: Juan Vitoria de Carbajal, Pedro
Sanchez y Monroy, Don Fernando Duran y Chavez II, Lucia Hurtado, and Dona Ana
de Sandoval y Manzanares.
Later, around the Rio Abajo especially after the first half of the seventeen hundreds
and second half of the eighteen hundreds the influx of immigrants included Hispanic
and non Hispanic names including Luis Huning, Felix de la Candelaria, Don
Domingo de Luna, Aguirre, Amalia Jaramillo, Domingo Tome, Peralta, Miguel A.
Otero, Barbara Romero, Juan Chavez, Telesfora Baca, Joaquin Perea, Captain
Diego de Torres, Antonio de Salazar, Pedro Vigil, Miguel Salazar, Manuel Antonio
Trujillo, Maria Vigil, Fracisco Martin, Nicolas Martiniano, Ignacio Barrera, Jose
Tenorio, Juan Jose Sandoval, Don Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza, Richard Ewell,
James Hubbel, Kit Carson, John Becker, Fiel, Gavino Gilbert, and Benedicto Sachs.
For those of us who are descendants of these first celebrants of Thanksgiving we
are blessed with two official days of thanksgiving. We celebrate them both and join
the rest of Americans during this season to enjoy the harvest of cornucopia, giving of
thanks, and understanding of the rich and complete history of our American
Thanksgiving holiday.
Holiday – Thanksgiving – Christmas Turkey recipe in English & Spanish
Pavo relleno receta en inglés y Español
Stuffed Holiday Turkey (Pavo Asado Relleno)
Ingredients:
One whole turkey (14 to 18 lb)
1 teaspoon thyme
About 1/2 cup chicken broth or water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Stuffing 8 cups dry bread cubes (about 11 slices bread) or six ounces of corn bread
with chile
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup onions, minced
3/4 pound ground pork or 10 strips of bacon
2 medium stalks celery, chopped
1 (1/4- 1/2 ounce) can tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 cup juice from can of tomatoes
one half cup of chicken stew broth
1/2 - 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning or dried sage leaves
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
String or cooking thread
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Rinse turkey inside and out with cold water; pat dry.
Sprinkle cavity of turkey with ½ teaspoon salt. Remove neck and giblets which may
be cooked and chopped and added to the stuffing ingredients. Cook pork or bacon
(with oil in a skillet over moderate heat 325 degrees F) and continue cooking, stirring
constantly, to break up the meat until it is browned. In a large bowl, mix bread cubes
parsley poultry seasoning, one teaspoon salt and pepper. Melt ¼ cup butter over
medium-high heat. Lightly fry onions carrots garlic and celery a couple minutes
stirring occasionally, until tender; add broth stirring until optimally moist and set
aside. Crumble the bread in a bowl add fried vegetables and mix well; salt and
pepper. Add drained tomatoes plus 1/4 cup of the juice from the can. Then add the
remaining ingredients. Cook, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Add remaining bread crumbs and butter, stirring to make sure they are completely
mixed into the dish. Spoon stuffing into neck cavity; turn wings back to hold neck shin
in place, sew shut. Spoon stuffing into body cavity; secure drumsticks under skin at
tail or tie together with string and then baste it well with the sauce. Place the turkey in
a preheated 350 degrees F oven and roast until done, basting it every 30 minutes.
Place turkey breast side up in roasting pan. Insert ovenproof meat thermometer so
tip is in thickest part of inside thigh and does not touch bone. Brush three
tablespoons melted butter over turkey. Do not cover turkey. Roast uncovered four
hours or until thermometer reads 165degrees F and drumsticks move easily when
twisted. Cover turkey breast with aluminum foil during last one hour and a half to two
hours of baking.
Place remaining stuffing in one or two quart casserole dish cover and bake with the
turkey thirty to forty minutes.
Baste with three ancho dried chiles, stemmed and seeded, three cloves garlic,
chopped. To small amount of water, add two tablespoons cider vinegar, and three
tablespoons vegetable oil. Soak the chiles in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes, and
then place them in a blender with the garlic and vinegar. Add enough water to make
a total of 3/4 cup and blend for 1 minute. Add the oil to the blender and pulse once or
twice or just until it is mixed with the chiles.
Pavo relleno
Ingredientes:
Un pavo 14 a 18 libras
Ocho tazas de pan molido o 6 a 4 onzas de pan de maíz con chile
½ taza de agua (caldo) de pollo
10 tiras de tocino or ¾ libras de puerco molido
1 (14 1/2 onzas) lata de tomates
1/4 taza de jugo de la lata de tomates
½ - 1 taza de apio (celery) (picado en trocitos pequeños)
½ taza de zanahoria (carrots) (picada en trocitos pequeños)
½ -1 taza de cebolla (onion) (picada en trocitos pequeños)
3 dientes de ajo (garlic) (picada en trocitos pequeños)
1/2 - 2 cucharra(s) de mesa ojas secas de salvia (dried sage leaves)
1/2 cucharita marjoram
1 cucharita tomillo (thyme)
2 cucharra(s) de mesa aceite de olive
2 cucharra(s) de mesa Perjil fresco picada en trocitos pequeños (finely chopped
fresh parsley)
Sal y pimienta al gusto
½ taza de mantequilla deritida
Hilo de cocina
Preparación:
Precalentar el horno a 325 grados. Freir el tocino/puerco molido en marmita o cazo
hasta esta bien concinado. Sofreír la cebolla, zanahoria y apio durante dos minutos
y separar. Desmenuzar el pan de maíz en un tazón, añadir los vegetales fritos y
mezclar bien. Echar sal y pimienta. De el lata de tomates quite el agua del lata
menos un quarto del jugo. Anadir los de mas de los ingredientes menos el pan
cocinando y revolviendo como diez minutos. colocar esta mezcla sobre la pechuga
del pavo y enrollar. Añadir el pan desmenuzado y mantequilla mesclados y
llenar el pavo. Luego envolverla con las tiras de tocino y colocar la pechuga sobre
papel aluminio. Amarrar bien con hilo y cocinar por 30 minutos.
celebration and of course counting our blessings. It is a holiday, which has a much
longer history than most Americans realize.
Every time a family or group gather over a meal and praise God for their gifts of life,
family, and food it is a “thanksgiving.” People have been doing thanksgiving for time
immemorial. However, here the focus will be on Thanksgiving feasts on a great
scale and historic significance that we have proclaimed a national holiday.
The first recorded act of giving thanks by colonizing Europeans in what has come to
be these United States of American took place in 1565 (over a half century before the
English Mayflower Pilgrims) when the Spanish founder of St. Augustine, Pedro
Menindez de Avilis, and 800 Spanish settlers shared in a Mass of Thanksgiving.
Following the religious service, Menindez ordered a communal meal to be shared by
the Spaniards and the Seloy natives who occupied the landing site.
The first Thanksgiving in what is now the American West occurred on April 30th 1598
as the Oñate muster arrived on the banks of El Rio Bravo, the Rio Grande before
Captain John Smith sailed from England and founded Jamestown in Virginia in
1607, and almost a quarter century before the famous Pilgrims anchored the
Mayflower at Plymouth Rock on November 21, 1620 and celebrated what is often
erroneously taught in many schools as the first Thanksgiving in 1621. It is estimated
that Don Juan de Oñate, one of the four richest men in New Spain spent in excess of
a million dollars from the silver mines owned by his father Cristobal Onate and
himself to fund a colonial expedition to New Mexico.
On January 26, 1598 Onate left Zacatecas, New Spain (later Mexico) to establish the
first significant infusion of colonists in the New Mexico Kingdom. The Oñate muster
formed a four-mile long procession with over 80 wagons and ox carts, with between
seven and thirteen thousand head of European livestock, and 560 people. The
expedition consisted of, soldiers, Indians, servants, and families, the majority of
whom were from the Iberian Peninsula including Spain, Portugal, and the Canary
Islands. For their mettle as colonizers of the kingdom of Nuevo Mexico they were
promised the title of Hidalgo, men with status of Spanish nobility. It was a long
arduous travail. They crossed the Rio Grande River on April 30, 1598 into the
Kingdom of New Mexico a few miles from the place called “El Paso del Norte” now
known as El Paso, Texas.
There was no “Texas” in existence at that time. To mark the event Oñate’s journal
indicates that he ordered the priests to lead the colonists in a Catholic mass of
thanksgiving followed by a large feast. They feasted on wild native fowl, and what is
known today as Mexican food. The event also appears in the journal of the famous
Spanish poet Gaspar Perez de Villagra, who traveled with Oñate. Villagra wrote, “We
built a great bonfire and roasted meat and fish, and then sat down to a repast the like
of which we had never had never enjoyed before.”
Before this bountiful meal, Don Juan de Onate personally nailed a cross to a living
tree and prayed, “Open the door to these heathens, establish the church altars
where the body and blood of the Son of God may be offered, open to us the way to
security and peace for their preservation and ours, and give to our king and to me in
his royal name, peaceful possession of these kingdoms and provinces for His
blessed glory. Amen.” It has since been known as the first Thanksgiving Day
celebration in the Wild West of the United States.
Over two hundred-fifty years later, at the behest of Sarah Josepha Hale, who spent
forty years writing to congressmen, lobbying five presidents, and writing countless
editorials in her campaign to create an official day of thanks, President Lincoln
became the first president to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. Many of the
colonists’ descendants continue to live right here in New Mexico after more than
fifteen generations.
There are few places in the country where European descendants in such great
numbers continue to live and survive three national banners and almost a score of
generations in the same geographic locale. Some of those first colonists, their
descendents along with families who arrived thereafter appear first in Spanish
Archives include the following to name a few: Juan Vitoria de Carbajal, Pedro
Sanchez y Monroy, Don Fernando Duran y Chavez II, Lucia Hurtado, and Dona Ana
de Sandoval y Manzanares.
Later, around the Rio Abajo especially after the first half of the seventeen hundreds
and second half of the eighteen hundreds the influx of immigrants included Hispanic
and non Hispanic names including Luis Huning, Felix de la Candelaria, Don
Domingo de Luna, Aguirre, Amalia Jaramillo, Domingo Tome, Peralta, Miguel A.
Otero, Barbara Romero, Juan Chavez, Telesfora Baca, Joaquin Perea, Captain
Diego de Torres, Antonio de Salazar, Pedro Vigil, Miguel Salazar, Manuel Antonio
Trujillo, Maria Vigil, Fracisco Martin, Nicolas Martiniano, Ignacio Barrera, Jose
Tenorio, Juan Jose Sandoval, Don Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza, Richard Ewell,
James Hubbel, Kit Carson, John Becker, Fiel, Gavino Gilbert, and Benedicto Sachs.
For those of us who are descendants of these first celebrants of Thanksgiving we
are blessed with two official days of thanksgiving. We celebrate them both and join
the rest of Americans during this season to enjoy the harvest of cornucopia, giving of
thanks, and understanding of the rich and complete history of our American
Thanksgiving holiday.
Holiday – Thanksgiving – Christmas Turkey recipe in English & Spanish
Pavo relleno receta en inglés y Español
Stuffed Holiday Turkey (Pavo Asado Relleno)
Ingredients:
One whole turkey (14 to 18 lb)
1 teaspoon thyme
About 1/2 cup chicken broth or water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Stuffing 8 cups dry bread cubes (about 11 slices bread) or six ounces of corn bread
with chile
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup onions, minced
3/4 pound ground pork or 10 strips of bacon
2 medium stalks celery, chopped
1 (1/4- 1/2 ounce) can tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 cup juice from can of tomatoes
one half cup of chicken stew broth
1/2 - 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning or dried sage leaves
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
String or cooking thread
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Rinse turkey inside and out with cold water; pat dry.
Sprinkle cavity of turkey with ½ teaspoon salt. Remove neck and giblets which may
be cooked and chopped and added to the stuffing ingredients. Cook pork or bacon
(with oil in a skillet over moderate heat 325 degrees F) and continue cooking, stirring
constantly, to break up the meat until it is browned. In a large bowl, mix bread cubes
parsley poultry seasoning, one teaspoon salt and pepper. Melt ¼ cup butter over
medium-high heat. Lightly fry onions carrots garlic and celery a couple minutes
stirring occasionally, until tender; add broth stirring until optimally moist and set
aside. Crumble the bread in a bowl add fried vegetables and mix well; salt and
pepper. Add drained tomatoes plus 1/4 cup of the juice from the can. Then add the
remaining ingredients. Cook, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Add remaining bread crumbs and butter, stirring to make sure they are completely
mixed into the dish. Spoon stuffing into neck cavity; turn wings back to hold neck shin
in place, sew shut. Spoon stuffing into body cavity; secure drumsticks under skin at
tail or tie together with string and then baste it well with the sauce. Place the turkey in
a preheated 350 degrees F oven and roast until done, basting it every 30 minutes.
Place turkey breast side up in roasting pan. Insert ovenproof meat thermometer so
tip is in thickest part of inside thigh and does not touch bone. Brush three
tablespoons melted butter over turkey. Do not cover turkey. Roast uncovered four
hours or until thermometer reads 165degrees F and drumsticks move easily when
twisted. Cover turkey breast with aluminum foil during last one hour and a half to two
hours of baking.
Place remaining stuffing in one or two quart casserole dish cover and bake with the
turkey thirty to forty minutes.
Baste with three ancho dried chiles, stemmed and seeded, three cloves garlic,
chopped. To small amount of water, add two tablespoons cider vinegar, and three
tablespoons vegetable oil. Soak the chiles in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes, and
then place them in a blender with the garlic and vinegar. Add enough water to make
a total of 3/4 cup and blend for 1 minute. Add the oil to the blender and pulse once or
twice or just until it is mixed with the chiles.
Pavo relleno
Ingredientes:
Un pavo 14 a 18 libras
Ocho tazas de pan molido o 6 a 4 onzas de pan de maíz con chile
½ taza de agua (caldo) de pollo
10 tiras de tocino or ¾ libras de puerco molido
1 (14 1/2 onzas) lata de tomates
1/4 taza de jugo de la lata de tomates
½ - 1 taza de apio (celery) (picado en trocitos pequeños)
½ taza de zanahoria (carrots) (picada en trocitos pequeños)
½ -1 taza de cebolla (onion) (picada en trocitos pequeños)
3 dientes de ajo (garlic) (picada en trocitos pequeños)
1/2 - 2 cucharra(s) de mesa ojas secas de salvia (dried sage leaves)
1/2 cucharita marjoram
1 cucharita tomillo (thyme)
2 cucharra(s) de mesa aceite de olive
2 cucharra(s) de mesa Perjil fresco picada en trocitos pequeños (finely chopped
fresh parsley)
Sal y pimienta al gusto
½ taza de mantequilla deritida
Hilo de cocina
Preparación:
Precalentar el horno a 325 grados. Freir el tocino/puerco molido en marmita o cazo
hasta esta bien concinado. Sofreír la cebolla, zanahoria y apio durante dos minutos
y separar. Desmenuzar el pan de maíz en un tazón, añadir los vegetales fritos y
mezclar bien. Echar sal y pimienta. De el lata de tomates quite el agua del lata
menos un quarto del jugo. Anadir los de mas de los ingredientes menos el pan
cocinando y revolviendo como diez minutos. colocar esta mezcla sobre la pechuga
del pavo y enrollar. Añadir el pan desmenuzado y mantequilla mesclados y
llenar el pavo. Luego envolverla con las tiras de tocino y colocar la pechuga sobre
papel aluminio. Amarrar bien con hilo y cocinar por 30 minutos.
First Thanksgiving & Recipes
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Belen, New Mexico
& Southern Colorado
& Southern Colorado
Terra Patre Farms